The embodiments herein relate generally to agricultural product and commodity distribution and, in particular, to tracking and security systems used in the distribution of agricultural products and commodities.
The distribution of products and commodities (hereafter referred to as “commodities”), such as grain, fuel, and fertilizer, from on-site storage facilities to other locations typically involves hauling loads of the commodities with trucks. When the seller or producer of the commodities does not own or operate the trucks, the trucks may be provided by a local coop or grain elevator operator, whereby the trucks transfer the commodities from the on-site storage facilities to the grain elevators or other destinations. In particular for agricultural commodities, depending on the amount of agricultural commodities produced, the seller or producer of the agricultural commodities may require hundreds of truckloads of the agricultural commodities to be removed from the on-site storage facilities. This produces a demanding task for the seller or producer of the agricultural commodities to track the shipments and/or track the distribution of agricultural commodities from the on-site storage facilities. Furthermore, the seller or producer of the agricultural commodities may instead rely on the local coop or grain elevator operator to provide sufficient accounting, but such accounting may not always be accurate or honest. While video surveillance may be utilized to review grain distribution and track individuals taking loads of grain from an on-site storage bin, the video processing may be time consuming, tedious, and inaccurate.
Thus, there is a need for security/tracking of agricultural and non-agricultural commodity distribution.